Women's crew competes at national invitational championships

Hamilton College finished fourth in the varsity eight third final at the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference National Invitational Rowing Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., on May 12.

The racing conditions for the morning's heats were cloudy with occasional showers, calm winds and temperatures in the 50s. For the afternoon's finals, it was sunny, breezy and temperatures were in the 60s. All races were 2,000 meters in length.

Hamilton’s time of 7 minutes, 9.037 seconds was less than 3 seconds shy of runner-up St. Lawrence University. Smith College took first place in the third final with a time of 6:58.655. In the morning heats, Hamilton recorded its best time of 7:00.449. Kelsey Burke '13 was the coxswain, Margaret Hylas '15 was in the stroke seat and Karly Moore '15 was in the bow seat. The rest of the boat consisted of (seats seven through two in descending order): Keara Lynn '16, Erin Gerrity '15, Caroline Walton '15, Helen Higgins '13, Jess Pedersen '15 and Keara Fenzel '14.

Hamilton’s second varsity eight qualified for the petite finals and took sixth place with a time of 7:58.013. Tufts University raced to first place in 7:32.961, just ahead of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (7:36.414) and Wesleyan University (7:38.181). Hamilton finished the morning heats with its top time of 7:10.944. The coxswain was Heather Piekarz '16, Hideko Nara '15 was in stroke seat and Nina Byers '16 was in the bow seat. Seats seven through two in descending order included: Fiona Hoffman-Harland '13, Emma Zanazzi '15, Annie Lindahl '15, Grace Bowers '15, Ally Kontra '15 and Rachel Johnson '13.

Hamilton took fifth place in the petite finals of the third varsity eights with a time of 7:49.265, which was just over 5 seconds behind runner-up Wellesley College (7:44.080). Wesleyan claimed first place with a time of 7:38.305. Hamilton's time of 7:22.715 in the morning's heats was less than 2 seconds shy of qualifying for the grand finals. Sydney Cantor '16 was the coxswain, Jess Sofen '16 was in the stroke seat and Mollie Major '14 was in the bow seat. The rest of the boat included (seats seven through two in descending order): Meredith Garner '15, Hannah Zucker '15, Rachael Feuerstein '16, Kate Schramm '16, Margaret Smith '15 and Rachel Landman '15.